Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Cars and Cats

The amount of money we have spent in the past 2 weeks is insane.  And frustrating!!!

My car.  The check engine light came on.  We were told it needed to be "reflashed" which involved downloading something or other to the car.  And that "should" fix it.  If not...then it is probably the O2 sensors.

Diagnostic for engine - $100
Reflashing - $158
Oil change - $31
Diagnostic for brakes (for a noise which turned out to be a function of the type of brake) - $40
Taxes and fees -  $16

Subtotal - $345 paid so far.

And the check engine light is still on.  We were told "drive it around" to help it reset....well, it went out, and came back.  So it now appears that we have to bring it back for new O2 sensors.  Plus my emissions is due, so all of this has to be done so I can pass emissions.

We had $160 in our car maintenance fund....so obviously that only paid for part.  The rest was paid from the famous 3-paycheck month money....which was supposed to go to pay down my surgery bills.  And we will see what the next round brings.

Our cats.  We have an ING account for them....for medical, food, litter. We had roughly $400 to help offset the costs for the year.  As of today, it is empty.  And it too wasn't enough.  Two cats in for check-ups today.  One cat has a gum infection, and needed a $46 antibiotic, and will need to have 2 teeth extracted.  One cat needs to go in for check-up.

We probably need about $500 for the check-ups, surgery, and misc supplies for the rest of year.  We will have to adjust our savings for the cats.  As they are getting older (13, 13, 10), they will need a little more attention.  I am hoping that we can do a better job of estimating for next year.

And before someone tells me to get rid of the cats....that is not an option, so don't even bother to try and convince me.  The dental issue is one of those things that happen.  But left untreated, it can cause serious damage and premature death.  He is our 10-yr old, so we would like to keep him around for a little while longer.  He is on "diet" food because he got chunky....but he has lost 1.5 lbs and the vet was happy that he is on his way to a healthier weight.

G-man said "well, they are part of the family, and we take care of family.  We wouldn't care about spending the money on one of us (meaning a human family member)."

Once the Christmas fund is funded (2 more pay checks), we have 4 more paychecks before we have to start saving for Camp.  That $460 will go toward all of the above.

It is always something!!!






4 comments:

  1. Ugh!! And thank-you for refusing to "get rid" of the cats!! I get sooo irked when people get rid of "problem" pets! (aka: pets they can't bother with anymore!!) If you take on a pet, you care for it, FOREVER! Not just until it becomes inconvenient!

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  2. I take my car to Autozone, they will read the codes for free and recommend what needs to be done... a lot of times the maintenance can wait and they will reset the light so it can pass inspection etc.

    I'm a dog person so I can't comment on cat expenses :(

    HS

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  3. I hear you on the cat thing! We just lost our lovely boy to cancer at the age of 21. We rescued him when he was 12. He had chronic gum issues. What ended up making sense for him in the long run, was to do a cycle of antibiotics. One week on Clindadrops each month. A bottle is around 15 bucks and served for two courses at 1ml each dose. It was cheaper than treating a full-fledged infection. As he aged, anesthesia was out of the question. We also did not feed dry food. Losing him has been tough but I don't know that we can properly care for another.

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  4. I wouldn't think getting 'rid' of pets is an option... not anymore than getting rid of a family member. Cars are just a pain... I am not even going to repair mine, because it's winter and I can certainly do without opening the windows.

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